Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier came together through the efforts of many people in Spain and the United States. In Spain, the Minister of Culture and former Director of the Biblioteca Nacional, Luis Alberto de Cuenca played a key role in initiating the project. Jon Juaristi and Luis Racionero, both former directors of the Biblioteca Nacional, and the current director, Rosa Regàs, continue to play an active role in the project. Araceli Sánchez Piñon, chief of the International Relations Section at the Biblioteca Nacional and the former chief, Carmen Caro, contributed excellent suggestions to the conception of the project. Their Majesties King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía of Spain inaugurated the project with the Librarian of Congress James H. Billington at the Library of Congress on February 24, 2000.

The materials from the National Library of Spain were digitized by the Mapfre Tavera Foundation and DIGIBIS, under the guidance of the late Ignacio Hernando de Larramendi, former president of the foundation, and Anunciada Colón de Carvajal. Pilar Hernández Aparacio of the National Library’s Manuscript Division and historian Paulino Castañeda Delgado wrote essays about the manuscripts.

At the Library of Congress, Beth Davis-Brown initially coordinated the project in the Office of the Librarian with support from Library Chief of Staff Jo Ann C. Jenkins. The staff of the Hispanic Division were invaluable in all aspects of the project. Division Chief Georgette M. Dorn provided initial planning advice and historical conceptualization. She assisted in contacts with project partners and in the selection of items, wrote introductory materials, and provided translations. Everette Larson, head of the Hispanic Division’s Reference Section and Hispanic Division webmaster, wrote texts, edited and prepared translations, assisted in selecting materials, provided technical information exchange with partners, contributed to early project design, and coordinated varied tasks throughout the Hispanic Division. Reference Specialist Barbara Appell Tenenbaum provided research and assisted with writing texts. Reference Specialists Fernando Alvarez and Juan Manuel Pérez, among other Hispanic Division staff members, including Marisa Grijalva and Stephanie Potter, translated texts and researched the timeline.

Global Gateway, the Library of Congress site providing links and information on international collections, is under the overall leadership of Associate Librarian Deanna Marcum and Director for Collections and Services Carolyn T. Brown. The project manager for Global Gateway is John Van Oudenaren, who is also responsible for the content and realization of cooperative digital projects with Russia, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Brazil, and other countries. Michael Neubert, digital conversion coordinator, is the team leader for the Digital Conversion Team that produced the site. Sam Manivong, digital conversion specialist, coordinated the production of digital images, bibliographic records, and other elements of the site.

Many other staff members at the Library of Congress were instrumental in the preparation, description, and processing of materials for Parallel Histories: Spain, the United States, and the American Frontier. Those whose efforts made this project possible include the following:

Office of Strategic Initiatives (OSI): Elizabeth Madden obtained server space; Christa Maher and Timberly Wuester created and maintained a production database. The site design and HTML coding were overseen by Lola Pyne and created by Andrea Dillon.

Information Technology Services (ITS): David Woodward was the primary programmer for the collection.

Barbara Dash, Rare Book Team, Special Materials Cataloging Division, and David Reser, Cataloging Policy and Support Office, upgraded catalog records for the book portion of the collection. Caroline Arms, Office of Strategic Initiatives, provided overall cataloging guidance.